Why we were banned

This is the ad that got banned by the commercial networks. Watch and read more below.

This election campaign, News Corp has used the front pages of its tabloids to launch aggressive political campaigns against one side of politics, while failing to scrutinise the other.

That's why we created this ad. We want to call News Corp's campaign out for what it it: biased crap. We want to show there is a movement of Australians who aren't going to stand idly by while one man tries to tell an entire nation how to vote.

Together, GetUp members raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a massive ad buy, standing up to News Corp on millions of TV screens across the country.

So why aren't you seeing the ad on tv?

Turns out, not everyone is as keen to stand up to a billionaire media mogul as we are.

After GetUp members chipped in money to put this on air we immediately made bookings.

Channel 10 said outright on the phone that they wouldn't run the ad because it criticises another media outlet. Lachlan Murdoch is on the company's board. We're sure the two are totally unrelated.Channel 7 refused the ad because "the creative execution was considered distasteful and potentially offensive to our audience, so we have decided to make a stand." So noble. We created a new version of the ad with the 'offensive' bits blurred out. They didn't respond. Channel 9 at least approved the ad, and ran it for four days. In fact, 615,800 people have already seen it on 9 across Brisbane. On Monday, they pulled the ad, and blamed it on a "coding error," saying it never should have run. Whoopsadaisey.

That's all three of Australia's major commercial networks banding together to suppress media criticism. What's more, it's happening in an election period where Australians ought to have the freedom to express their opinions and to criticise and speak truth to power.

We have lodged a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

In the last 18 hours, other media have cottoned-on and run with the story. They've created a media storm that's seen us on the front page of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald websites, run on ABC and SBS, and much more. The story is only gathering momentum.

Because of the network's refusal to play fair, the ad is likely to be seen, discussed, and shared by more people than if the original ad buy had have gone ahead.

Our team acknowledges that we meet and work on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We wish to pay respect to their Elders — past, present and future — and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.